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AUSTIN - The Texas voter ID law, one of Gov. Rick Perry's top priorities during the 2011 Legislature, has been stalled by the U.S. Justice Department, which is insisting on demographic information about voters that state election officials say is virtually impossible to provide.

Texas Republicans expressed dismay Thursday after Justice Department officials said they need voter information about race and ethnicity before they can approve the controversial law, which is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1.

The ruling raises the possibility that the law will not be in place by the March 6 primary.

Information that Texas election officials have provided "is incomplete and does not enable us to determine that the proposed changes have neither the purpose nor will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color or membership in a language group (required under the Voting Rights Act)," T. Christian Herren Jr., chief of the Justice Department's Voting Section, said in a Wednesday letter to Texas elections director Ann McGeehan.

The requested information will be virtually impossible to gather, said state Rep. Patricia Harless, R-Spring, House sponsor of the voter ID bill, SB 14.

"I am disappointed," she said. "I don't know that the Secretary of State can provide the information in the format that they want. I am not sure that we will be able to satisfy them. I think it's ridiculous."

No accurate breakdown

Texas elections officials do not track voters by race or ethnicity, said Rich Parsons, spokesman for Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade.

"So there's no accurate way to provide a racial breakdown of voters," he said.

Election officials, he said, would do "our best to provide them the data they request but it will be unreliable."

Texas can match voter registration lists with Department of Public Safety records to collect racial data for some voters, Parsons said, but DPS did not provide a specific category for "Hispanic" Texans until 2009.

Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, has been pressing state officials to come up with the demographic information on voters in an effort to determine whether the new law could have a bigger impact on minorities.

"I am pleased that DOJ is asking the probative questions, which indicates they suspect the real issue is voter suppression," Ellis said.

GOP pushed measure

Republicans pushed the Voter ID measure to ensure all voters are properly identified and eligible to vote.

Democrats countered that there is no evidence of voter impersonation in Texas and that the bill simply was an effort to make voting more difficult for low-income Texas, students and the elderly, who typically vote for Democrats.

The new law would require voters to show a Texas driver's license, a Texas concealed handgun license, a U.S. passport, citizenship papers, or a military identification card before they could cast a ballot.

Student ID cards issued by state universities, out-of-state driver's licenses, or ID cards issued to state employees would not be accepted.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires Texas and other southern states to receive preclearance by the Justice Department for changes to existing voting laws or political districts.

The Texas Secretary of State sought preclearance for the new voter ID law in July, but the Justice Department requested additional information to determine whether the new law would discriminate against minorities, particularly Hispanics.

On Thursday the Justice Department said preclearance could be denied because the state "has not provided any of the required data by race."

The Justice Department wants to know the number of registered voters in each Texas county - by race and Spanish surname - who have a Texas driver's license or other photo identification issued by the Department of Public Safety.

Review period

Harless would not speculate on whether the Voter ID bill would be in place for next year's elections.

"But it is absolutely possible that it may not be in effect by the next election cycle - for sure by the (March 6) primary," she said. "The Department of Justice has made it clear that they are not going to make this easy on us."

The Justice Department has 60 days to consider a completed application, but the review period will not start until the agency receives the requested information, according to Herren's letter.

"Texas Republican leaders are getting exactly what they deserve," said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, which fought the bill. "They made it so difficult for Texans who express a desire to vote to actually go out and vote. If you are going to set the bar that high, you better set the burden for preclearance equally as high to make sure that this is not being done for nefarious and discriminatory purposes."